Brenticus

Nice! I do love the Surprise. I named my sailboat after her . I kind of wish I'd put white on the bottom of mine.

@ Nazgul: Thanks for the recommendation! The Berlin does seem strikingly similar to my (less discerning) eye- especially below the waterline (which seems to be the difficult part to find). I'm not so much afraid of wooden kits in general (in fact, I am dying to do one), so much as I don't think my skills are at a place where I could pull off such a complicated build before getting more experience. I'll probably do a nice Rattlesnake or maybe a simple brig first, and then move onto the Berlin, as it really does seem very similar (aside from the stern, but that's just aesthetic). I'm very sure indeed that you are right about it being easier to modify. You make a good point about the carvings and the paint...the amount of carvings makes more sense on something lie the Vasa or the Wappen Von Hamburg (not Dutch, but a pretty prestigious warship, from what I gather). @ Marcus: Thanks for the link! There was some really interesting info in that thread, and I am looking forward to reading the thread on the Vasa forum that was linked within there. One of the guys said his dissertation was on Dutch ships, I believe (just skimmed it). That should be an interesting read!

Thanks for the replies, but I actually meant kitbashing a plastic kit into the Kalmar Nyckel (that's why I posted it in the plastic area, unless I did something wrong). I can see how doing a wooden one would be much more feasible, but I've never built a wooden kit yet, so I really don't have the skills to do something like that. What I am thinking about would involve sanding down some of the wales, adding custom gratings, and kit-bashing the balcony and beakhead, as well as gluing the decks in different positions (which I'm sure would require sanding them down). And other kitbashing parts of course. I don't know how feasible it is in plastic, though.

My fellow model shipwrights, I want to build a model of the Kalmar Nyckel (http://www.kalmarnyckel.org/), but apparently none exists. I lack the skill to build a wooden one from scratch. However, since I am going to crew her this year, I am absolutely champing at the bit to have a model of her. The Kalmar Nyckel (a pinnace) looks a lot like a galleon and is of that era, so I thought maybe a galleon could be modified to look like her. The Revell Spanish Galleon was out, since its aftercastle is too high and the stern itself has two balconies. The Golden Hind, however, looks pretty close. The plans of both are attached for comparison (My thanks to KeithW for the Kalmar Nyckel plans). The Kalmar Nyckel has a shallower draught, especially toward the stern. The wales up above the weather deck are entirely different, and the gratings are in different locations. The quarterdeck/poop (whatever you call those on a older vessel like this) is in a bit of a different location. The balcony on the stern is different, as well. It seems to me that all of this (except the draught, might have to live with that, I don't know) could be overcome with some sanding, cutting, and kitbashing. TL;DR: Can I use kitbashing, sanding, and cutting to make the Golden Hind into a presentable (though certainly not perfect) approximation of the Kalmar Nyckel? What do you folks think? Is this feasible? Do you all know of another kit that would work better?

I was afraid that was the case. One day, I must scratch build one, then. I'm going to be crewing her later this year, and I thought it would be really cool to have a model of the pinnace. However, my skill is far below a level where scratch building would be advisable at all, so I believe I will take your information, pocket it, and hold onto it until a time when I am skilled enough to use it. Thanks so much for sharing what you were able to find

Does anyone know if there is a model kit of the Kalmar Nyckel? She's a lovely pinnace that I will be sailing on later this year, and I would love to make a model kit of her. Google has not found anything. I am not optimistic.

That's a very pretty kit as well. Looks really nice!

Leaning heavily toward the Sherbourne, actually. Thanks @ccoyle for mentioning that kit, I hadn't seen it before. I really like it. And thanks to everyone for the advice- especially about which ones to stay away from.

@Jack: Hm, that recommendation surprises me. The website says it's advanced. It looks like a lot of tiny details. What I really meant by size was more like size of the subject matter though, not the model itself. I should have specified. Maybe a nice Armed Va. Sloop or the Sherbourne. I really liked that kit, actually...

@ccoyle: I clash sometimes between what I can easily achieve and what will keep my interest, but I take your point. The Sherbourne is a lovely little cutter, I could definitely live with that. It's just hard for me to do something like a lobster smack. The Pride of Baltimore II certainly is a handsome vessel, and I could look at a few other schooners...but I am afraid if I get a kit of something that is too simple I might lose interest. But I'll definitely try to keep it simple...which is good, since part of me wants to be like "just get the Bellona- it'll be fine!" lol @ Geoff: another vote for Victory models, must be pretty good. Thanks!

That's a nice looking (and affordable) kit. Thanks!

That makes sense. I was using Chuck's Practicum on my Sultana, and it really was excellent- the guy predicted/ outlined every issue I saw (and I saw every issue he outlined). This makes me awfully tempted to do the Syren, as I just found a big 50MB document by Chuck about that kit, and I'm a hard sell on small projects (or projects that don't involve "the great guns", as it were). Although they have a Midwest boat over at Hobby Lobby, so I'll have to keep that in mind too. Thanks for the input!

Hi, all! I just recently finished my first model ship, a plastic Lindberg Jolly Roger (log is on here). I'm moving onto wood kits. I started working on a Sultana I got for super cheap, but I find that the solid hull just doesn't work with me. It's not how I think, I guess. I don't mind the sanding and the work, but POB just makes more sense to me. So, I'd like to buy a nice POB kit and put that together (doing much more homework and work in general, I'm sure...but I'm ok with that). Since I am new, I would like to get a POB kit with the best instructions available. Which brings me to my question: In your opinion(s), what kit (from which mfg) has the best instructions? I glanced some of the instructions for MSW's kits which I believe are known to be pretty good, and I found some pretty considerable variances from kit to kit. The brig Syren's instructions looked really nice, and very comprehensive- more so than the Rattlesnake I had started looking at. But is this so? And what kit (from any mfg) would be better/ easier to follow? I've got a couple of good books on it (Ship Modeling from Stem to Stern and a couple of books on rigging). Maybe I should just jump in and get whatever I like best? Thanks in advance for any opinions/ references

The new location of the practicum (and others) is here: http://modelshipworldforum.com/ship-model-build-and-practicums.php

Thanks! I'm glad the elaborations I added look good. It's nice to have my first build under my belt. Now onto the Sultana, as soon as I have the scratch!